Cory Monteith tribute draws biggest 'Glee' audience in a year

The show paid tribute last night to the late Corey Monteith who passed away from a drug overdose.

The show paid tribute last night to the late Corey Monteith who passed away from a drug overdose.

Ryan Faughnder

Thursday night's "Glee," an emotional tribute to its former cast member Cory Monteith who died earlier this year, drew an audience of 7.4 million, according to early numbers from Nielsen.

The episode of the Fox series got a rating of 2.8 in the key 18-49 demographic, up 75% from last week's telecast, and its total viewership surged 68% for its best ratings in more than a year.

Thursday night's show featured several stirring performances in honor of the star who died in July, including Lea Michele's rendition of "Make You Feel My Love." Monteith died of mixed drug toxicity, involving intravenous heroin use and ingestion of alcohol.

Fox also had "The X Factor," which fell 5% to a 1.9 in the advertiser-desired demo.

Overall, CBS was the highest rated broadcast network of the night, leading off with "The Big Bang Theory," Thursday's most-watched show. More than 17.2 million viewers tuned in, and the comedy received a rating of 4.9, down 6% from last week.

Also impressive was "The Millers," starring Will Arnett, which lost only 6% of its young adult audience from last week's strong premiere. Its 18-49 rating was a 3.1. "The Crazy Ones," CBS's new comedy with Robin Williams, fell 17% to a 2.4. "Two and a Half Men" and "Elementary" both fell single digits.

ABC premiered "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland" at 8 p.m., which was down 23% in the demo compared with last year's opener of "Last Resort" in the same time period. "Wonderland," a spinoff of "Once Upon a Time," drew an average of 5.74 million viewers and a 18-49 rating of 1.7.

NBC's comedy lineup struggled, except for "Parks & Recreation," which was flat with last week's 1.2 rating. "Welcome to the Family" fell 27% to a 0.8 and "Sean Saves the World" slid 29% to a 1.0; both are new shows that premiered last week.